Comments for The Present American Polity at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 23 out of 20 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:18:20 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-3548 Painful to watch a Holy Cross grad--Chris Matthews--go on and on berating his guest and not being able to stay on subject. Not painful for the Bishop but for Matthews himself. Too bad Schall was not mandatory reading for the Kennedy clan and their waterboys. How is that Matthews and Kennedy can speak against the Church's teachings but the Church cannot speak for itself? Strauss warned us of this often. Moral relativism and postivism are our controling principles. Morals have no seat at dinner. - Mark Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:17:48 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-3023 I believe critical mass has been met and there is no reversing the situation. It will just take a few election cycles for the language and policies this administration is pushing to take hold. Van Jones is a good example with this Green Jobs organizations and talk of public private partnerships that used to reserved for Third World UN projects. - stosh Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:06:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-3019 Lincoln's "more perfect union", was, in fact, the restitution of America's republican institutions. The danger of abandoning those same republican principles is the essence of Father Schall's argument. - breatnac Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:30:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2999 Fr. Shall's reference to "dangerous poiliticians" seems to glance over Lincoln's call for a more "perfect union". Are we suggesting that social progress is detrimental to democratic health? I hope not. - Mike Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:00:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2996 Liz-As I sit smelling my coffee, actually drinking it, I am a bit perplexed. I thought I was supportive of Father Schall's article. Perhaps there is another Willie running around somewhere. - Willie Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:50:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2997 No one is good but God. Why should anyone put faith in the world? Come ON! Wake up! If it's run by people it's corrupt. That should be simple enough for all of us to figure out. Black, White, Democrat Republican, all are flawed. A christian is best when he loves and forgives everyone and puts distance from their own personal advancement or a political agenda. - snotly Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:49:27 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2991 Dangerous is an important word in Fr Schall's essay. Nostalgia for a past that was rosy if you were the right color, belonged to the right Church, and were born on the right side of the ocean is a dangerous preoccupation. - Ron Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:59:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2994 "The world has many sins, but its peculiar offence is that of daring to reason contrary to God’s Word and will." ******* At one time that meant reasoning that the Sun did not revolve around the Earth, it was the other way 'round. It also meant reasoning that slavery was a moral wrong despite the Bible's specific approval of the institution. We reason around priests and Bible stories all the time, and that indeed is our salvation from the Dark Ages that Newman would have us repeat. - mespo727272 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:59:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2993 Willie, wake up and smell the coffee. You are too old to be so naive. Truth can sometimes hit one like a 2x4. Now, get over it, take a deep breath and relax. This is an outstanding article. More people need to speak out. - Liz Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:58:01 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2992 Mr. Ruse, Your acute aversion to pernicious prissiness (in capital letters, no less!) is duly noted. My argument is that tone indeed matters, for two reasons. First, the constant need to demonize/de-humanize the President suggests that the underlying arguments can't stand on their own. Second, Catholics should follow Christ and the teachings of the Church as guides to comportment in the public square. This week, Fr. Schall and Prof. Arkes fell short of this standard. - David Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:57:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2990 Arguments about tone spring from a strain in our public discourse that is prissy. Arguing from tone as a way of diverting and even stopping debate is a new and PRISSY strain in American political discourse. I suspect that it is a pernicious strain of the campus speech codes. - Austin Ruse Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:13:08 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2989 I agree with Fr. Tim and Darlene. We need Fr. Schall to keep writing on this theme and to begin suggesting solutions... - John McCarthy Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:11:25 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2987 While I agree with Fr. Schall about us becoming wards of a nanny state, I think he implies a loss of "our glorious past". I've been digesting Andrew Bacevich's Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, and it's a bracing rejoinder against holding an uncritical triumphalist view of our place in the world. In this, I agree with Wil's question below about Bush; Bacevich (a colleague of Pat Buchanan) is consistent enough to argue with Reaganism, at least in military terms. - Tom in NC Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:10:46 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2986 I won't address the substance of Fr. Schall's remarks because there is much with which I agree. But I am shocked by the tone of this and Professor Arkes' recent column. There is an increasingly coarse and personalized tone to the columns that demonizes/de-humanizes the President and is not consistent with Catholic teaching: Gadium et Spes, the Book of James about the power of the tongue, St. Paul's teachings on the attributes of Christian love, to name a few. Where is Christ in these words? - David Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:07:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2985 I agree with Willie- Fr. Schall knocks it out of the park again. It is like Chesterton said, we are sawing away the branch of the tree on which we are sitting. Cut of from the Great Western Tradition all we have left is the will, our will, and the triumph of radical individualism is the demise of US. - Achilles Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:25:06 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2984 I agree that there are problems with the present administration, & that it is particularly deficient in the moral department (its lack of respect for natural law)... but how is that different than the preceding administrations? I find it strange that Obama & his initiatives excite so much ire from my fellow conservatives who were silent at the statist abuses under former Pres. Bush. One wonders if they see Obama's statism so starkly b/c its form is less favorable to their private interests? - Wil Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:24:32 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2983 We are living under an authoritarian elite. Actually more like an oligarchy. We have propaganda tsars and anti-supernaturalism as a presuposition in most peoples minds. I agree with what has been said, the Republic is gone. Anyone not willing to face that is living in an illusion. So... WHAT DO WE DO? - Fr Tim Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:24:01 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2981 Sadly, it is too late. The evidence is that more than half the country voted away their freedom, knowing (but not realizing) what was involved. It happened because morality has been defined away and this has been accepted by most people. No mere assertion, it is obvious that good is now defined by narrow political interests with no higher authority and that includes the Constitution. It would take a miracle to restore communal values built on a higher authority. The rot has gone on for too long. - Watcher Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:17:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2980 Fr. Schall, you outline for us what is wrong. How, at this point, do we do what is right? Can you give us an outline for that? - Darlene Mann Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:17:05 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/the-present-american-polity.html#comment-2979 Great insight into today's stealthy usurpation of a once great republic based on truth and Natural Law. Are we now ruled by an elite who have jettisoned the Natural Law in favor of positive law? Truth is irrelevant so we are now seeing creeping chaos in our society. Pray God we don't have another “Reign of Terror, Third Reich or Workers Paradise" to again make us realize the value of truth. The present "Change you can believe in," by way of the new regime may be the change that does us in! - Willie Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:42:13 +0100